Patrick

Happiness!!!

Isn't baseball season just great!!

As lame as Flip is, the last thing any team needs is Larry Brown. You'd be much better off with Mike Fratello, or Hubie Brown, or several other retreads. Yeah, NYK is the perfect spot for Larry Brown.

Yes. Five in a row and in second place behind Chisox. Byrd served up three gophers but survived last night. Sowers pitched well this afternoon--Jensen Lewis couldn't survive the seventh. And why weren't the Indians running at will against Jorge today? Sizemore got gunned down, after staying attached to first for two outs. Oy. NY fortunate to avoid the dominant AL starter Cliff Lee!!! Victor Martinez as steady as ever. Offense otherwise not really clicking. Dellucci/Michaels in left remains brutal. Starting pitching (besides CC until his most recent start) has been solid. JoeBo and Westbrook to miss a month each. Hopefully Laffey will follow Sowers with another solid start. Nice to have 7 major league starters. Hopefully CC will repeat his most recent performance, and not the rest of 2008 (or 2007 postseason) against Wang.

Happy Birthday Mark!!

I was there as well. First time ever to experience Mr. Rollins in person. Initially fearful that it would be extremely short--only played for about 20 minutes before taking a break (much like Tyner earlier this year), but played for an hour plus after the break. The guy is still having fun, and sounding as vital as ever. Fairly full house too (many DC class trip student groups).

congrats to the quartet. The joy--and the mayhem--continues, hopefully with a lot of smiles!!

In my alternative Indians bullpen universe, Joe Borowski is the long man. Maybe closer by committee, or give it to Betancourt. Rafael Perez, Jensen Lewis, Masa Kobayashi, and to a lesser extent Jorge Julio are the setup guys. Of those guys, the only one that you can make a legitimate argument is weaker than Borowski is maybe Julio (based on age, injuries), or possibly Kobayashi (unproven in MLB). Good news is that JoBo just got placed on the DL with a strained right biceps muscle. Tom Mastny, the last bullpen cut, was promoted. I suspect Betancourt will get first crack at the closer role. Briefly to other positive things. Travis Hafner, while not totally locked in averagewise, is presently not in the shackles of last year. Jake Westbrook was solid and steady again. If Cliff Lee can continue to pitch at the level he was pitching a few years ago, then Paul Byrd can rightly reclaim his spot as the fifth starter (behind CC, Fausto, Westbrook, and Lee) instead of the third starter (much of last season). Sabathia has been brutal so far, but I remain confident during his contract year. Most of the time, Manny Ramirez in a foreign uniform does not bother me. The guy can swing, and doesn't seem to take himself too seriously (usually). Occaisionally he does deserve a knockdown pitch following the posing at home. Manny was Manny, but it was Youk that I had a bad feeling about before the game started. That guy just kills the Tribe. And first pitch was thrown by Mudcat Grant. Accompanied by Al Downing, and JR Richard, two other African American 20 game winners. Hot stove league may be over, but let's keep the stove hot in Cleveland (...and a few other places) for at least a few more weeks.

It's painfully obvious now. Joe Borowski must have comprising pictures of Eric Wedge and/or Mark Shapiro together or with farm animals or ... already two blown saves, velocity is down. A stacked bullpen. How much longer??? Hey Red Sox Nation, enjoy the gift you received tonight.

TBS has dropped the Braves. They have a national Sunday afternoon broadcast now, and I believe that they will have the NLCS as well. Cool. Did not know that. Just shows how much time I spend clicking by WTBS. I haven't been watching much baseball yet--though enough to notice Sabathia is off to a lousy start, Borowski is still terrible (and maybe injured), but Westbrook and Lee are pitching well (at least against Oakland).

I'm confused. Nats/Braves on a DC sportstation, flip over to TBS to see what's up there, and they are showing Cubs/Phillies. Why? Does TBS have a general NL deal? Or are people concerned that the lovable Cubs just don't get enough nationwide exposure on their own superstation? Or is it a Caray thing (...and I wouldn't understand)?

After last night's lost to the Cavs, in which the Pistons got to the freethrow line a grand total of three times for the whole game (yes... three times), you may be right. So the Pistons were only 6 of 7 from the line, and the Cavs had 9 more FT attempts (12/16). Refs were letting them play, at both ends. Did you watch the game? I only caught the second half and saw a whole lot of missed jumpers by Detroit--especially Rip and Chauncey. Sheed ended up getting his points (16) but Ben made him work at it, and toward the end (when the game was still very much in reach) Sheed was just launching 3's. Fine outside shooter for a big man, but good luck with that. Forget about going to the line, when you only shoot 39% from the field and 28% from 3-point land, you're probably going to lose, even when you hold the opposition under 90. Cavs are a talented team, playing their division rival, at home, with rest. The real explanation for the outcome is that Detroit played a barn-burner in Denver the night before, and the Cavs had an offday at home.

Please. If you can look past the travelling by Kobe, Shaq, Iverson, etc., etc., etc., you can look past LeBron. Try it. It's not hard. It's been the NBA way of life for at least 20 years... :bwallace2: Pistons slight favorites over Boston in the East. Cavs have a chance if they can get everyone playing together--new guys (Wally, Ben, Delonte, Joe Smith) and their injured (or recently off the injury list) players (Ilgauskas, Gibson, Pavlovic, Varajao). I'm actually pessimistic about this happening in time, but we shall see. They have a few games against Detroit and Orlando, but much of their remaining schedule is fairly soft. Ben Wallace appears to be damaged goods, but I've never been that high on him, and I think Cavs will get as much contribution out of him as they did Larry Hughes (who is genuinely happier scoring in Chicago rather than winning (and earning bonuses) in Cleveland). In early games it looked like Ben and Z were playing well together (even getting more D out of Z!), but now Ilgauskas is on the shelf. Best part of the trade so far is Joe Smith who is easily contributing as much as Drew Gooden (while being better at the defensive end and at the line). Other best part of the trade is that Daniel Gibson and Anderson Varajao are still in town (for now).

Last night I caught McCoy Tyner trio performing with tap dancer Savion Glover. Interesting idea that went over very well with the Kennedy Center crowd. Only obviously "tappable" tune was Duke's "In a Mellow Tone". Some feedback, perhaps from Glover's micced floor panels, kind of ruined the two tunes the trio played without Glover. Perhaps the saddest part was that they played two 30 minute sets (if that). I know McCoy will be 70 this year, and he certainly is not as vigorous as he's been in recent years, but is this guy just cashing checks now? [...I had a similar but less strong feeling following his fairly short performance at Univ of Maryland last October.] I knew that this was a possibility, and I'm not upset--just wonderin'.

Close game until Manu totally took over in the fourth--for the game, eight 3-pointers, ouch. Cavs playing reasonably well through a tough part of their schedule. Still missing Varajao, Pavlovic, Gibson. After tonight, Cavs only have 3 games left with western conference teams with .500+ records (Houston, Portland, New Orleans). They won't catch Detroit, so they won't rise above the 4 seed. Hopefully they'll get their guys back and make another run... And check Larry Hughes' recent production: averaging 18.8 ppg over last 10, including 26 against Spurs and 40 against Magic. Finally some signs of life (...cue the medical staff). Recent report has Devean George vetoing the Kidd to Mavs deal. We'll see if DAL/NJ can work around this.

A sex worker weighs in on the etymology, suggests WJC is the real pimp... http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/tracy_...imping_who.html

Happy Birthday! Enjoy your contributions here, as well as Soul Journey .

Count me among those that enjoy Chris Matthews, David Shuster, David Gregory, etc. Not a fan as in fanatic, but I enjoy their attempts to cut through much of the BS (and to my mind, they appear to do this more than several other cable news alternatives), and I enjoy the varying analysts/commentators (even Pat Buchanon...as an analyst, not as a politician). Shuster's mistake was one of judgment. Plain and simple, he's on the air too much. With MSNBC basically being all politics all the time (until the late hours when it's time for "documentaries" about prison life...different type of pimpin' there...), the MSNBC talent is spending a lot of time talking on the air--much more time than during non-election times. So Shuster is on Morning Joe, and Tucker, and Hardball, and Olbermann etc. And sometimes he's a fill-in host on one of these shows, or hosting coverage from the SC primary on the weekend. So it's more than a 5 minute news segment that gets edited before being broadcast. Shuster made a mistake, and appeared to compound it somewhat by complaining that the daughter was campaigning for her mother, but was not speaking to any reporters. To me, this rationalization seems to have nothing to do with pimping (...but I don't have any youngsters). So punish Shuster for some period of time, and let him return as a reporter (more than a host/talker). I only hope that not everyone at MSNBC ends up in severe self-edit mode if/when HRC ever appears again (Matthews already did this the one time I saw him speak with her on the air). I also hope that the affected campaign doesn't play the victim card too much. Shuster apologized, a number of times, and is being suspended. Show some dignity and toughness (toughness they claim Obama has not yet proven he has), and turn back to (or toward) campaigning about the issues. While it often appears to be win at all costs (i.e. play every single card), I will hold out hope following this unfortunate event.

happy birthday, ...keep rollin'

ESPNews reporting that Shaq is on the trading block, and one possibility is sending him to the Suns for Marion and Banks. If I'm the Heat, I do that deal in a heartbeat.

I'm not making it a big deal, but it fits the pattern. Yes he ran out directly at Coughlin, shook his hand quickly, and ran away as quickly as possible (not acknowledging anything/one else, near as I could tell). No, he doesn't need to put his headset back on. But the season is over, why rush off the field after doing the minimum possible? There's no game next week to prepare (and no flight to catch either). How many other coaches would do what he did? I suspect not that many. How about acknowledging some of the Giants players or asst coaches? Ultimately, it's not that important, but I was curious to see what he'd do after having his first bad outcome of the season. As others have noted, he and his team are tremendous evaluators of talent and game tacticians, and that's the most important thing. Perhaps he just really needed to use the facilities, or to change back into one of those all cotton-almost sleeveless-homeless person-hoodies.

I liked that BB peanut butter and jelly bit. One of the local Cleveland stations tried to do a magazine-style Bill Belichick "coach show" during his time there, and it was pretty lame. Mainly because BB has very little personality, or at least little ability/willingness to emote in front of the press/camera. Really awkward conversations about football. [unlike Ditka, Parcells, Johnson, to name a few.] So I took the PB and J thing to be a nice send up of that. At least it showed he had a sense of humor about himself.

my wife and I went with an Ella version of "Cheek to Cheek" (no Louis Armstrong)--simple and sweet...and swingin'

Please. Which 3 teams in the East will get in with only 30 wins? All 8 playoff teams in the Least will win at least 30. In fact 13 of the 15 Leastern teams are on pace to win at least 30 (only NYK and Miami look not to get near that level). Perhaps one or two will make the playoffs with a sub-.500 record, and that will be frustrating to fans of good but not great west teams. Not too shocking actually. And with rare exception (hello Mavs), the 8th seed in each conference will meet a quick end in the first round, regardless of how many regular season games they won. And the conference winner likely would beat the 8th seed from the other conference as well. So the West is better again this year. Just like the AL and the AFC were. Such is the nature of league sports.

Tremendous, historic, game. Wes Welker was the only Pat who showed up. What happened to that NE offensive line? Anyone else think Bill Belichick was a bit greedy going for it on 4th and forever when they were in long FG range? Is losing 7 yards of field position so huge that you go for it on 4th and 13 (or whatever it was) rather than attempt to score 3 points? Was there a physical problem with the placekicker (Fox suggested this was not the case)? Pretty class move by BB running off the field before it was over--almost Moss-like. An ounce of dignity with all of the well-earned arrogance, perhaps? Guess not. He did manage to talk to a Fox reporter for a minute or two. Who knows how much financial duress was involved. Is it that tough to ignore Csonka, Griese, Morris, etc. in FL? I'll admit that it was pretty sad that ESPN's first postgame interviews were phone calls with Griese (happy birthday!) and Morris. The season is over now (sorry ProBowl fans) so ignore everything NFL-related (including Mel Kuiper) until the draft... Pitchers and catchers in less than two weeks!